JNieman
Titanium
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2011
- Location
- Greater St Louis Area
No, I'm not talking about the dumb shapes and little animals we've probably all mud-dobbered together on the weld table when we're bored.
But I've been researching more and more about Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing technology. The state of things seems to be pretty decent. The technical aspects all make sense. The material quality, with a good power supply and good "CAM" planning all appear, according to the tests I see, as-good or better than wrought metals.
So what I'm wondering is... for people who end up with low volume castings and forgings... are we going to start seeing "WAAM" near-net shapes to finish-machine rather than forgings and castings?
I know it'd sure take a hell of a load off the spindle time required to take a 2 ton block of 6061 down to 40 lbs, if it came in near-net at 50 lbs.
The lead time on some of these low volume castings we end up sourcing for our customers can be atrocious. If we can "print" a part per day, even, it seems like turnaround time would be pretty greatly improved. As always, everyone wants everything yesterday...
Has anyone else been aware of this type of thing?
I was at Fabtech last year, and Lincoln/Baker and Fanuc were certainly showing it off.
I'm curious how much sense it makes to bring in-house, or even to outsource to Lincoln, since they offer it as a service. Anyone out there have experience with it, or considering it?
But I've been researching more and more about Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing technology. The state of things seems to be pretty decent. The technical aspects all make sense. The material quality, with a good power supply and good "CAM" planning all appear, according to the tests I see, as-good or better than wrought metals.
So what I'm wondering is... for people who end up with low volume castings and forgings... are we going to start seeing "WAAM" near-net shapes to finish-machine rather than forgings and castings?
I know it'd sure take a hell of a load off the spindle time required to take a 2 ton block of 6061 down to 40 lbs, if it came in near-net at 50 lbs.
The lead time on some of these low volume castings we end up sourcing for our customers can be atrocious. If we can "print" a part per day, even, it seems like turnaround time would be pretty greatly improved. As always, everyone wants everything yesterday...
Has anyone else been aware of this type of thing?
I was at Fabtech last year, and Lincoln/Baker and Fanuc were certainly showing it off.
I'm curious how much sense it makes to bring in-house, or even to outsource to Lincoln, since they offer it as a service. Anyone out there have experience with it, or considering it?